ET gives birth to CJ7

Chow did not pay attention, but later that day he was told BullBull had passed away. The guilt of not saying goodbye to his loyal friend was part of the driving force for his new work.

"The E.T. dog was the biggest challenge," Chow says.

"Most films need special effects, but in Chinese films a totally 3-D computer-generated dog has seldom tried before."

Chow invited top Hong Kong-based company, Menfond Electronic Arts, creator of the visual wonders in Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuanjia), to design the visual effects. Some of CJ7's facial expressions, however, were designed by Chow himself.

Supervisor Eddy Wong was given the task of employing the latest technology to translate Chow's vision to the screen.

The virtual dog was a challenge to Xu Jiao, a 10-year-old girl, who plays a boy in the film. Most of the time, Xu talked to an invisible dog. But her performance was praised by Chow.

"She is a born actor and genius," he says. "She's a better actor than me."

Xu was picked from some 10,000 young hopefuls, after an 18-month audition in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities.

The long-haired elementary school student is a trained actress and hosted children's art troupe in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, which is also Chow's ancestral hometown.

Chow says he knew instantly when he met Xu that she could perform the role well.

She burst into tears, however, when she discovered she had to cut her long hair to play a boy, though she did not cry for long.

"Hair can grow very long within a year, but opportunity won't wait a day," she says.

The girl's clever comment explains why she was chosen by the demanding Chow.

When speaking of her challenging role, Xu is modest.

"It wasn't that difficult," she says. "I play an innocent child, and I am an innocent child."

"CJ7 is a film that makes you laugh first and cry."

Chow admitted that CJ7 is a slight departure from his previous comedies featuring slapstick humor and lowbrow dialogue. But Chow hasn't lost his touch.

During the media screening, the audience burst into laughter more than 20 times. Most journalists were congratulatory, while some predicted that the film would help Chow enter the "200 million yuan ($27 million) club" and break the box office record of Chow's own Kungfu Hustle, the second highest grossing film in Hong Kong, next to Titanic.

"This is a new kind of Chinese movie. But I hope audiences will like it," Chow says.

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page18)